Battle of Fivizzano

The Battle of Fivizzano (December 1494) was the first major battle of the War of the League of Venice. King Charles VIII of France headed north with his French army after having conquered the city of Naples, but the army of the Neapolitan nobleman Corrado de Trastamara led an army of 1,081 troops north to pursue Rolin de Valois' vanguard of 1,091 troops. The Neapolitans defeated the French, but they suffered 805 losses in the process, slightly shorter than France's 996 casualties.

Background
In 1494, King Charles VIII of France invaded southern Italy on a quest to revive the House of Anjou's claim to the Kingdom of Naples, which was taken over by the Spanish House of Trastamara from Aragon during the Wars of Guelps and Ghibellines. Charles VIII became King of Naples after conquering the city, but King Alfonso II of Naples still lived and Sicily still remained under Neapolitan control. While marching back to France, Charles VIII was encountered by a variety of armies that were led by Venetian, Milanese, Papal, and Neapolitan generals of the Papal-formed League of Venice. Sir Rolin de Valois' 1,091 French troops were attacked by Corrado de Trastamara's 1,081 Neapolitan troops en route to France in Tuscany, and the French were forced to give battle.

== Battle ==

The French army had two Basilisk cannon and an army of pikemen, arquebusiers, and Chivalric Knights. Sicily's army was entirely composed of condotierri and dismounted feudal knights, and the Neapolitan army assaulted the French lines. The French cannon were useless and their inaccurate arquebusiers failed to inflict heavy losses before the Neapolitan infantry overwhelmed them. The rear-line French pikemen charged in, and while they repelled attacks on their left and right, their center buckled under the pressure of cavalry and infantry. The condotierri won a smashing victory, although remaining French units inflicted heavy losses before they were defeated and forced to flee the battlefield.

Aftermath
The result was a crushing defeat for France, but Naples also suffered unacceptably heavy losses in their victory and they were unable to exploit it in any way. Naples lost its last army, while only a small portion of the French army was crushed.